


Twenty Minutes to Showtime

by yikesola



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: First Meeting, M/M, quiz show au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 17:33:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17564936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yikesola/pseuds/yikesola
Summary: Dan should really be focused on the trivia he’s memorized in preparation for this quiz show. Instead, he’s rather distracted by his fellow contestant who’s bragging about having already been on a quiz show before.A fic about meet-cutes and gauging competition.





	Twenty Minutes to Showtime

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the PFF DAPG Flast Fest.

“I should warn you, I have experience.” 

“That’s what she said...?” 

Dan watched his fellow contestant’s face crack into a wide smile at the joke. It was a nice smile. Distractingly so— and Dan couldn’t afford to get distracted right now. Not when he was about to step onstage to compete on a quiz show, trying to remember all the random facts he’d been cramming his head with in a futile sense of preparation. 

He’d left the cramming ‘til the last minute of course, but if it was good enough for his uni exams years ago, then it was good enough for _Buzz!_

Yeah, that’s right: _Buzz!_ The spoof of a quiz show was finally meeting the fate of all satire that is commercially viable— like _Shrek_ and Instagram life hack accounts, the satire was being dropped for the sake of profits. 

They’d failed to die as heroes and lived long enough to become the villains. 

_Buzz!_ was being turned into a proper quiz show. And Dan had, through a series of events he’s chalking up to the universe’s majestic randomness, qualified for what will be the fourth episode once all the filming is done and the show starts airing in the spring. 

He’s already forgotten his fellow constant’s name, even though they’d shaken hands here in the green room not twenty minutes ago. It seems his brain really can’t handle any new information at this point. 

“Anyways,” Dan said to the guy, “I have experience too. Everyone with a PlayStation has played copious amounts of _Buzz!_ ” 

“I don’t just mean home versions,” he laughed. “If that counts, between all the hours my family and I have played _Buzz!_ and _Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?_ you definitely don’t stand a chance.” He shook his head, but that smile was still painted on his face. 

Dan knew he ought to be focusing on really anything other than the conversation— focusing on who was top of the pop charts in the 1980s and what the European capitals are— but with a smile like that, Dan was having trouble focusing on much else. 

“Besides, I mean live experience,” he went on. 

“Oh yeah?” Dan asked. 

“Yep! Was on _Weakest Link_ little over a decade ago.” 

“How’d you do?” 

“Not important,” he waved a hand. “What _is_ important is that I won’t be intimidated by those studio lights. Sorry, mate. Me, the host, the questions? We aren’t a contestant’s worst enemy out there. It’s the lights.” 

“I thought it’d be the literal bomb they’re gonna hand us,” Dan laughed, “or the lava pit?” 

They were interrupted by a crewmember who came in to assign them their hand buzzers. “Nearly done with episode three, boys. We’ll be on to yours after they reset the stage,” she said. “Hang tight.” 

When they were alone again, Dan’s nerves started to catch up with him. He held the hand buzzer shakily. “Starting to feel real now,” he said. “And y’know, despite your experience I think this one’s in the bag… I have good general knowledge, I have fast reaction spe—” Of course, as he was bragging over his reaction speed and tossing the buzzer just slightly in the air, he dropped it in his lap. Just Dan’s luck. 

“Oh, I’m shaking,” his competitor laughed, “check out that reaction speed!” 

“Maybe I’m luring you into a false sense of security, ever think of that?”

“Well, my strategy is just to keep psyching you out. I know loads of irrelevant facts. I know so much about random animals and I have an English language and linguistics degree that I never use so it’s perfect for quiz shows.” 

“Did it help you last time?” 

“I mean, not really,” he laughed. “But I remember chatting with this guy called Richard beforehand who was as unimpressed with my degree as everyone always is, and then later he got a question about syllables wrong after taking ages to count them in his head! And I wanted to shake him because you don’t exactly need a linguistics degree to count syllables, but apparently, it doesn’t hurt. They kicked him off right there in the third round after he’d been the strongest link for the first two.” 

“So what you’re saying is that chatting with you before a quiz show is bad luck?”

“No, no, c’mon. Besides, there are only two of us this time. What, you just wanna sit here in silence?” 

“That’s kinda my m.o.” Dan shrugged. “I don’t really talk to people.” 

“You should. Or talk to me at least.” 

“But I _am_ talking to you.” 

“You should keep it up,” he smiled and leaned closer to bump their shoulders together. “I just moved to London only a month ago, I don’t really know anyone to talk to. Definitely not anyone as interesting as you.”

His tone on the word _interesting_ and the gleam in his eye implied that he possibly meant a different word. _Funny_? _Attractive_? If Dan were feeling more optimistic, he might think the guy meant something like that. 

Dan could feel the rosy patch near his jaw blush and he wanted to kick himself. Why the fuck did he think any of this was a good idea? The quiz show and the flirting and the getting out of bed in the first place. Can’t even handle banter with a cute guy without blushing…

“Okay, I could give talking a try,” Dan said. “Maybe we should keep talking after this?” 

“Winner buys the loser lunch?” He held out his hand. 

Dan shook it for the second time that day; his competitor’s hand was cool and smooth and this time the way the guy’s long fingers curled around Dan’s large hand made him take notice. “Deal,” he said. “If we both survive, that is.” 

“Yeah, guess there’s no guarantee of that.” 

The crewmember from earlier came in through the door. “Alright now… Dan, Phil, come with me.” 

They stood. Dan repeated Phil’s name in his head a good few times, hoping he wouldn’t forget it again. He supposed there was a possibility that whatever fact his brain erased to make room for Phil’s name was the fact which could win him the game. It would be the perfect opportunity for the universe to laugh at him yet again. 

But then Phil clapped a hand onto his shoulder and smiled and said, “Good luck,” and Dan honestly in that moment didn’t give a fuck if he got a single question right or not. 

Besides, even if he does lose it won’t sting for long. Free lunch, and the probability that Phil will smile at him again? Pretty decent trade-off.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading-- come say hi on [tumblr](http://yikesola.tumblr.com/post/182348626264/twenty-minutes-to-showtime) !


End file.
